The Danger of Sourcing Your Dog Supplements from China

Back in 2007, there was a massive recall of dog and cat food in the United States that has resulted in a number of fatalities and caused chronic illness in just as many.

Originally, it was speculated that rat poison had contaminated the batches of pet food, but it turned out that they were contaminated with from an imported ingredient from China called melamine. Melamine is a chemical used for manufacturing glues and fertilizers, which the Chinese manufacturers added to gluten, in order to drop their production cost, boost the protein content of the pet food and make them chewier.

While it has certainly caused a massive scandal, truth is – if there was no speculation of the rat poison contamination, the issue wouldn’t have been brought to light. It is particularly concerning because it is morally and legally wrong to adulterate food products with toxic ingredients, especially for the purposes of profit, and in the detriment of innocent lives.

The bottom line is that there is a real danger to sourcing your dog products from China, and the pet food scandal is just one of the incidents that have been singled out at a large scale. The inconvenient truth is that the Chinese monopolize the market on feed grade supplements, since no other manufacturer can produce them as cheap. The reason why the prices are dirt cheap in China is because there is no quality control, testing, certification or legislation regulating its production.

If you are not convinced about the dangers of Chinese-made food and supplements products, perhaps this insider quote will help make you more conscious about the products that you buy and where they come from:

“Sometimes you enter a factory, and you say, ‘I can’t believe they produce food here.’ It’s dirty and the machines are old,” said Jan Willem Roben of Vision Ingredients in Shanghai, a broker of food additives for export.